In myths, there are often mysterious creatures that grow horns on their heads. Although no one has yet proven its existence, at least scientists have found a strange disease that causes humans and animals to grow horns.

In the history of medicine so far there have been many extremely strange cases of people growing horns. These horns look very hard, but they are actually made of keratin just like hair or nails, which is why scientists call them cutaneous horns.

Typically, leather horns grow on the head or ears of mammals that do not have horns. However, according to research, keratoderma is especially common in humans and not animals.

Keratosis is a type of skin tumor that appears when excess keratin accumulates and then forms a horn that protrudes from the skin.

Unlike other tumors, cutaneous keratomas have a very particular shape, identical to animal horns, hence the unique name of this disease.

The oldest recorded case of horn growth is that of Mary Davis, who lived in Saughall, Cheshire, England in the 17th century, and who possessed four horns. One of Mary’s horns is currently on display at the Museum of Jurᴀssic Technology in Culver City, California, USA.

Another case in which the person with the longest horn was a woman from 19th century Paris, Madame Dimanche.

According to the documents, the horn began to appear right in the center of Ms. Dimanche’s head when she was 76 years old and continually grew.

Doctors initially said the horn was not a dangerous condition and refused to perform surgery to remove it. However, over time, the horn continues to grow, affecting the patient’s life. In the end, Ms Dimanche had the horn removed, by which time it had grown to be more than 25cm long and was hanging just in front of her face. A wax model of Ms. Dimanche is currently on display at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.

Scientists still don’t understand why keratoderma occurs. However, normal horns grow in areas of the skin exposed to a lot of light such as the face, neck, ears, back of the hands, top of the head… That is why many theories suggest that solar radiation can be the one that causes it to be stimulated. development of the disease.

It is also thought that the HPV papillomavirus may be involved because a form of this virus in humans causes the appearance of keratinous, rough, crust-like tumors on the hands and feet, similar to the disease keratoderma.

In about 20% of cases, cutaneous horns can be a sign of a potentially dangerous skin disease, such as carcinoma. Most of these horns are nothing to worry about, except that they are unsightly. Patients with keratosis pilaris can undergo surgical removal with a fairly simple surgery.

Although there are many hypotheses put forward by scientists, until now they have not been able to have an exact explanation for the strange phenomenon of corneal growth in humans.